The dark days of the last two weeks in the Lake District have been made even more winter-like by downpours. At these times, seeing the area's waterfalls gives a lift on even the blackest day. This is especially so as autumn tints, screening silvery skeins like Lodore Falls, Stock Ghyll and Aira Force, are now approaching their best. But for sheer shock value, it is regions farther east that reign in the waterfall department. Visiting the Howgills I was struck by the difference of spectacle with the falls here in these Cinderella fells. They can arrive so suddenly, the jolt of viewing them is not totally unlike that, I would imagine, felt by David Livingstone when he first spotted Victoria Falls powering over their vast sill.

Black Force and The Spout are two such sights when in spate, only visible after negotiating a ghyll on the old Westmorland-Yorkshire border as rifted as the Rishi Ganga Gorge in northern India. Cautley Spout on the far side of the mountains is spectacular too, but can be seen through restaurant windows by visitors enjoying bacon and eggs in the temperance hotel beneath, so less surprise there. Uldale Force on the river Rawthey is, however, well concealed. A recent screening of this untamed cataract on the BBC's Secret Britain attracted scores of viewers who turned up to see the waterfall at first-hand. "It was like Blackpool," says Harry Hutchinson, whose sheep graze the sprawling acres enclosing the elusive waterfall. Here in the hinterland of Baugh Fell, the multitude arrived in all manner of garb. When one, unsuitably attired in sandals and jeans, asked this Dales shepherd if he had seen the programme, he could answer quite truthfully: "Afraid not. We haven't had a television for years." When pressed as to the waterfall's location he could also truly answer, "I'm not allowed to say. It's meant to be a secret."